The EPA is soliciting public comment on a petition from several organizations to cancel remaining organophosphate (OP’s) insecticide registrations. OP’s are widely utilized in Tennessee row crop agriculture and are critical components of IPM programs. Cancelling an important crop protection product would place increased pressure on a limited number of control options available to producers.  We are encouraging agricultural professionals to comment to the EPA on the impacts OP’s have on your production systems. If you need assistance with comments please contact your UT extension specialist. The link to comment is below. Deadline for comments is August 11, 2022.

Organophosphate registrations Regulations.gov

EPA–HQ–OPP–2022–0490

I’ve gotten a few phone calls inquiring about our bollworm moth trap catches and what the populations are doing. To date, we’ve only had one trap catch that was in the double digits and that was on the WTREC research station. Our trapping runs began in May and will continue through August across West TN.  We are still on the early side for bollworms to appear in cotton and once we begin to see consistent numbers across our catches, I’ll update our numbers on the blog. Keep a look out for eggs and kicking up moths as you scout cotton and soybeans. The drought situation and overall poor condition of corn may have an impact on the bollworm generation migrating out of corn, we’ll see the results of that in the coming weeks.